Buckinghamshire History Festival
By Buckinghamshire Archives
From pioneering women professionals to a futuristic escapade to save the world’s archives, join us as we connect you with local stories and hidden histories from further afield, through video talks, podcasts, blogs, and interactive events for families.
Buckinghamshire History FestivalNov 08, 2021
Limmer and Trinidad Lake Asphalt Company
Katherine Gwyn talks to Louise Allen about her involvement with Bucks Archives' Black History Research Group, and her research into the connections between a company based at Slough Trading Estate and Pitch Lake, Trinidad.
**29 min**
Mary does Marlow
Mark Bateman (Buckinghamshire Libraries) interviews arguably Marlow's most famous resident, author of Frankenstein's Monster, and inventor of the science fiction genre, Mary Shelley.
**20min**
A Burial in Oving, 1946: the life of George Laurence Bazett Hull and his crew
Wing Commander George Laurence Bazett Hull died in an air crash in 1946, and was buried in Oving, Buckinghamshire. When a team of archaeologists and historians found the wreckage of this crash in a field in 2017, they did not anticipate the journey that Hull, or 'BOK' as he was known to some, would take them on. Here is that story.
**46 min**
Black Bucks Lives: Samson Ethiope, the Herberts, Henery Pompey and Catherine Duleep Singh
Tony Sargeant talks Archivist Katherine Gwyn through some of his research into Black Lives in Buckinghamshire, conducted as part of Buckinghamshire Archives' Black History Research Group. The lives discussed include Samson Ethiope, Pharo, Ann, John and Mary Herbert, Henery Pompey and Catherine Duleep Singh.
**33 min**
Dillibe Onyeama: A Black Boy at Eton
In 1969 Dillibe Onyeama became the first Black pupil to finish his studies at Eton College, which was then in Buckinghamshire. Three years later he published his memoirs documenting that experience. Dillbe has gone on to have a long and successful career in publishing, and as an author. Ahead of Penguin's new edition of his first book, Judi McGinley and Katherine Gwyn link-up with Dillibe from his home in Nigeria.
Pre-order A Black Boy At Eton here: https://amzn.to/32i6sMI
Where are the Black Lives at Bucks Archives? A conversation with Dr Caroline Bressey
Here at Buckinghamshire Archives we have been running a project during 2021: the Black History Research Group, with the aim of hunting through our collections to find Black Lives that date to before 1948. But we were struggling - this is a hard ask. So Katherine Gwyn reached out for help, and who better than Dr Caroline Bressey? Caroline has researched black Victorians in London, and was sure to have some wisdom to share...
**22 min**
Gardening and Historic Garden Preservation: Turn End and Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust
Gardens are important but highly changeable elements of our physical and cultural landscape; can the needs of gardeners and historians ever reconcile?
Claire de Carle of Buckinghamshire Garden Trust talks with Jackie Hunt, Gardener at Turn End in Haddenham. Claire and Jackie discuss recent research by the Buckinghamshire Garden Trust into mid to late 20th century gardens and designed landscapes in the county and focus on Peter's Aldington's Turn End, the only post-war English Listed house and garden created by the same hand. What other projects in Buckinghamshire have been proposed for recognition and protection? What was architect Peter Aldington's ethos for creating his village houses and garden in Haddenham in the 1960s? How can we help raise awareness and recognition of post war landscape projects?
https://bucksgardenstrust.org.uk/
https://www.turnend.org.uk/
https://local-heritage-list.org.uk/buckinghamshire
**18 mins**
Loving High Wycombe: Jay Blades in conversation with Helena Chance
The Repair Shop's Jay Blades talks to Design Historian Helena Chance about his time based in High Wycombe, as a student, leader of youth engagement projects, and learner furniture restorer. The conversation covers Jay's love of High Wycombe furniture by Gomme and Parker Knoll, his time at Buckinghamshire New University, what life's like in the Repair Shop Barn, and his pride in his Dyslexia.
**25 min**
Top Tips for House History
Professional researcher and house historian Cathy Soughton gives us her top tips for starting your own house history.
**7 min**
Two House Historians Through Time: Melanie Backe-Hansen in conversation with Cathy Soughton
All around the country people are itching to learn about the history of their home. This is driven by the success of the BBC series 'A House Through Time', which takes a property and over four episodes, explores the lives of some of the people who lived there. Historian Melanie Backe-Hansen is consultant to that show, and has co-written the book of the series with its presenter David Olusoga.
In this podcast Melanie chats to fellow house historian Cathy Soughton, about the show, how she got into this line of research, and some of her favourite houses.
A History of the Festival of Lights
In September 2021 Katherine Gwyn sat down to talk virtually with Vicky Jackson and Poonam Gupta, two members of the team behind Aylesbury's annual Festival of Lights. They talk about Diwali, what it means, who celebrates it, what to say to acknowledge it, and most importantly, what to eat.
24 min episode.
The MK Skate Project
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
Milton Keynes has played a seminal role in the development of UK skateboarding culture. During the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the skateboarding capital of the UK and is still regarded by some as the lead city for street skating. In 2005 it developed and opened Europe’s first skate plaza, The Buszy. It is an important story which until now has remained unrecorded and largely unknown outside of the skate community.
Starting in 2019 the project has gathered momentum, capturing oral histories and hosting exhibitions. In this podcast, project manager Caterina Loriggio is joined by core volunteers, and skateboarders: Wig Worland, Lindsay Knight, Will Tricks, Jay Bancroft, Moss Bancroft and Neil Bowen, to reflect on the project, and the history that they have been a part of.
MK Skate is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Milton Keynes Council.
Building the Buszy
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
In the early 2000s Milton Keynes had a problem with Skateboarders, who were drawn to skate the concrete and granite features of the city. Rather than shutting-down skateboarding throughout the city, MK Council worked with the skateboard community to find a solution. Their first output was the world's first urban skate plaza: The Buszy.
In this podcast, facilitated by the MK Skate Project, is hosted by Leo Sharp. A skateboarder himself, Leo talks to the two architects behind the Buszy Project: Andrew Armes and Richard Ferrington. What unfolds is a story of challenge and collaboration, which questions the very nature of the public spaces that we share every day.
MK Skate is funded by Milton Keynes Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and aims to record and tell the social history of skateboarding in the city.
Family History During Lockdown
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
When we went into Lockdown back in March, Jo Lester made the most of the extra time by picking up the threads of her family history. As part of the team at Buckinghamshire Libraries she knew that her library card gave her access to lots of different online resources: Ancestry, British Library Newspapers courtesy of Gale Publishing, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In this podcast she tells the tale of how she was able to learn more about a Suffolk-based branch of her family, using these tools. Warning: Suffolk Punch horses may feature heavily.
Jo Lester is a Customer Service Officer with Buckinghamshire Libraries. She has a life-long fascination with the past, and is particularly interested in social history, both of her own family’s, and more generally.
Access to the resources discussed, and more, for Buckinghamshire Library holders, here
Civil War Petitions: Conflict, Welfare and Memory during and after the English Civil Wars, 1642 – 1710
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
Andrew is Professor at the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester. After obtaining his doctorate on the extent of support for parliament in Civil-War Yorkshire at the University of York, he completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of East Anglia and Birmingham before coming to Leicester in 2006. He is best known for his two monographs‘Black Tom’: Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution (Manchester, 2007) and Turncoats and Renegadoes: Changing Sides in the English Civil Wars (Oxford, 2012).
He has published four further edited volumes and fifteen articles in academic journals on civil-war topics. He is currently working on his third monograph Widowhood and Bereavement in the English Civil Wars.
In his podcast for Buckinghamshire History Festival, Andrew recounts the lives of veterans from the English Civil Wars, and their families, as part of a collaborative Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project: Civil War Petitions: Conflict, Welfare and Memory during and after the English Civil War. Themes of bereavement, widow-hood, and the responsibility of the state to care for its soldiers are explored, both nationally, and in Buckinghamshire.
Dad’s Army in Bucks: The Local Defence Volunteers and the Home Guard
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
Professor Ian Beckett retired as Professor of Military History from the University of Kent in 2015. He has been secretary to the trustees of the Buckinghamshire Military Museum since its inception in 1985, and is also a long-serving member of the Executive Council of the Bucks Record Society. The Society published his edition of the county papers of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 2016.
In his podcast, Dad’s Army in Bucks; The Local Defence Volunteers and the Home Guard, Ian talks us through the inception on 14th May 1940 of the Local Defence Volunteers, which later renamed Home Guard but will be familiar to most as ‘Dad’s Army.’ It’s this perception of the Home Guard, deeply entrenched thanks to the long-running sitcom to which it owes its renown, which Ian addresses first. Despite a lack of surviving records, a detailed and fascinating account follows, charting the formation of 13 Home Guard battalions across Buckinghamshire, and how the units were an integral part of the county’s defence plans – despite a lack of weapons, ammunition and uniform faced by the volunteers. Sure to delight fans of military history in Buckinghamshire, and further afield.
Our thanks for this podcast go to the Buckinghamshire Military Museum Trust.
Building Milton Keynes
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
Guy’s podcast sees him in conversation with Buckinghamshire Archives’ Chris Low, who first met Guy thirteen years ago when he arrived in Aylesbury to research the proposed, but never constructed, Milton Keynes monorail. What ensued was a years long study of the creation of Buckinghamshire’s new town in the 1970s, and in particular a visit by new Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979, when she was escorted on a three hour driving tour of Milton Keynes with the corporation’s chairman, Sir Jock Campbell. An insightful, fresh look at a curious moment in our local history.
Guy Ortolano teaches urban history at New York University. His recent book, Thatcher’s Progress: From Social Democracy to Market Liberalism through an English New Town (Cambridge, 2019), is the first to draw from the remarkable collection of materials related to the building of Milton Keynes at the Buckinghamshire Archives. Guy lives with his wife and two children in a thirty-storey concrete tower block in New York City. For more about his work, visit guyortolano.com.
The Surprising History of the Smock Frock
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
In her podcast for Buckinghamshire History Festival, The Surprising History of the Smock Frock, Alison weaves a tale of costume history, charting the humble smock from its origins as an over garment for agricultural labourers to the catwalks of 2020. The smock now has a folky, bohemian image that evokes a simpler, idyllic rural past. However, as Alison uncovers, it was originally a versatile, affordable, and mass produced piece of clothing beloved by the urban, as well as rural, working class.
Alison Toplis is currently an honorary research fellow at the University of Wolverhampton. Born and brought up in Buckinghamshire, she worked for several years as a dress and textiles specialist at Christie’s Auctioneers before completing her doctorate in the area of nineteenth-century working-class dress. She has since lectured and published widely in the field of dress and textile history. Her second book, The Hidden History of the Smock Frock, will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2021.
Dealing with Deeds: The Hidden Bucks Project
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
In his podcast, Hidden Bucks, Martin discusses the fascinating titbits found in local deeds which shed light on the day-to-day lives of our ancestors. Searching a collection that spans from the 12th century up to the Second World War, Martin has uncovered tales ranging from local riots to local royalty…
Martin Deacon joined Bedfordshire County Council as a records management assistant in 1990, qualifying as an archivist in 1994. He joined Buckinghamshire Archives on a temporary contract in 2018 cataloguing the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society collection.
A Brief History of Mental Health Care
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
David Luck has been in working in archives for 12 years, most recently in various roles at London Metropolitan Archives. He joined the Museum of the Mind in June 2019 as the archivist, and now looks after a collection of records relating to Bethlem Royal, Maudsley and Warlingham Park Hospitals that go back to the 1500s. You can find more information on the museum, and the history of the hospitals and mental health treatment, on the museum’s website. David is very happy to answer any questions as best he can at david.luck@motm.org.uk
In A Brief History of Mental Health Care, David talks to Buckinghamshire Archives’ Katherine Gwyn about the changing way British society has coped with mental health issues throughout history. From the 17th century theory of bodily “humours”, to the establishment of asylums in the Victorian era, and through to modern day, David and Katherine examine the changing attitudes, treatments, and language surrounding mental illness.
Stoke Mandeville Spinal Unit and the Paralympic Movement
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
In their podcast, Mary Brown and Pallavi Podapati discuss their mutual interest in the history of disability and sports, and the birth of the Paralympic Games in 1948, at Dr. Ludwig Guttman’s now legendary Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. This uplifting and essential podcast shines a light of the international importance of the early Paralympic movement, as Mary and Pallavi discuss how the care at Guttman’s unit, and the progress made in rehabilitating the men and women injured in the Second World War, changed the future of both sport, and life with a disability.
Mary Brown is a graduate of the George Washington University with a Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology. She has a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Science degree from the University of Liverpool. She was an Archivist at the Island County Historical Society in Coupeville, Washington, USA. She was also the Project Archivist on the Wellcome Trust funded Spinal 2 Sport project where she catalogued records relating to the development of disability sport and the history of the Paralympic Games.
Pallavi Podapati is a PhD candidate, History of Science, at Princeton University. Her research is at the intersection of the history of disability, technology, labor, and the body. Her dissertation, “Beyond Boundaries: A History of Paralympic Design and Practice,” examines the development of particular adaptive technologies and sporting practices in the Paralympics, drawing attention to the disabled body as a complex site for the (re)constitution of culture, technology, athletic performance, and of life itself. The project’s central focus is the role of athletes in the design and creation of adaptive sports and sports technologies and how these practices and technologies influenced the development of disability sport through the 20th century into the early 21st century. She is a graduate of Swansea University and the University of Pennsylvania.
5 Fascinating Facts About Milton Keynes
From Buckinghamshire History Festival 2020
Catherine McIntyre is the archivist for Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre at Bradwell Abbey, and for Milton Keynes Museum. She also catalogued the collection for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, which is held at Buckinghamshire Archives. She has worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science and The Open University, and has a postgraduate diploma in Archives & Records Management from the University of Dundee. Catherine was one of the editors of the publication ‘MK50: A new city comes to life’ and produced ‘The Milton Keynes Colouring Book Vol. 1’.
Catherine grew up in Milton Keynes and has a passion for sharing the area’s history, especially its new town history, with anyone who will listen, which particularly comes through in her podcast, 5 Fascinating Facts about Milton Keynes. Darting back and forth through history, Catherine fills us in on the origins of the utopian city in the 1960s, to how traces of medieval life can still be found if you know where to look, and even covers how a typo is responsible for the naming of one of Milton Keynes’ most iconic features…